Friday, November 28, 2014

Recently, serious chaos, and eventually
a fight erupted in the South African National Assembly as an MP, Ms. Ngwanamakwetle
Mashabela of the Julius Melema-led Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), while
addressing the House, described South African President, Jacob Zuma, as a “thief”
and “criminal.” Asked by the House chairman, Cedrick Frolick, to withdraw the
statement, she refused and instead continued to repeat the same words. She insisted
on remaining on the podium and also completing her speech despite an order by Mr. Frolick
for her to stop and leave the podium. As several MPs sought to talk, and Ms. Mashabela
stood her ground, chaos was unleashed in the House. The eventual invitation of the police to
escort the defiant MP out of the Legislative chambers led to a scuffle which
badly degenerated, as punches were reportedly exchanged. See Video BELOW

Owing to the
prevalent situation in Nigeria,
I am being asked to repeat the following article with slight additions to
reflect the political and socio-economic circumstances on the ground. We
certainly need the intervention of a Higher Force to guide us as we pass
through this period.

(pix: goddiscussions)

The famous French writer Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States of America in the first half of
the 19th century and returned with reports of how great America had
become not too long after it had emerged from its War of Independence and
passed through the teething problems of nation-building. His extensive tour led
him to probe the source of this eminence.

When Tocqueville had undertaken an
arduous search, he wrote: “I sought for the
greatness of the United
States in her commodious harbors, her ample
rivers, her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there. I sought
for it in her rich higher learning and it was not there. I looked for it in her
democratic congress and her matchless constitution and it was not there. Not
until I went to the churches of America
did I understand the secret of her genius and power”.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

An experimental Ebolavaccinetested
on 20 volunteers appears to be safe and producing theimmune responseexpected within four weeks of
receiving the dose.

Half ofthe testgroupreceived
a higher-dose shot, and those people produced more antibodies, says a study
published in the NewEnglandJournal of Medicine.

Some people also developed a different set of
virus-fighting immune cells, named T cells, doctors found.

Research on monkeys had also noticed such a combination
response, reports AP.

Calling it
"a promising factor," Anthony Fauci, director of NIH's National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which led the vaccine work, said the response was comparable to what had
produced protection in the animals.

The researchers reported no serious side effects other
than high fever which subsided in a day. A booster shot may be needed, say
experts, going by the results in monkey trials.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's temperature being taken by a Chinese soldier

before the opening of a new Ebola virus
clinic

sponsored by China, in Monrovia, Liberia,

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014 (pix: ibtimes)

The Ebola outbreak in Sierra
Leone, which has been surging in recent weeks, may have
reached its peak and could be on the verge of slowing down, Sierra Leone's
information minister said Wednesday.

But
in a reminder of how serious the situation is in Sierra Leone, a ninth doctor
became infected Wednesday and the World Health Organization said the country
accounted for more than half of the new cases in the hardest-hit countries in
the past week. By contrast, infections appear to be either stabilizing or
declining in Guinea and Liberia, where
vigorous campaigning for a Senate election this week suggests the disease might
be loosening its grip.

In all, 15,935 people have
been sickened with Ebola in West Africa and
other places it has occasionally popped up. Of those, 5,689 have died. The case
total includes 600 new cases in Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone in
just the past week, according to the WHO.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

OVERVIEWAs northern Mali experiences renewed violence, peace negotiations in Algiers offer a unique opportunity to resolve the crisis. But after almost two months of negotiations, peace remains a distant hope. The Malian government and participating armed groups have struggled to find common ground. Influential radical groups that are absent from the negotiating table are tempted to resort to violence to derail the process.

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita(pix:mali.web)

Conflict resolution will require reconciliation of competing interests regarding security in the Sahara, organisation of the Malian state structure and local balance of power between divided communities in the north. In the face of armed clashes, it is tempting for mediators to move quickly to achieve a deal that would only guarantee security in the short term. But rushing the process will not help. Time is needed to build the foundations of sustainable peace.

After months of deadlock, Algeria arranged international mediation that had long been handicapped by institutional rivalries. The mediation team led by Algeria should maintain this momentum and take the time necessary to build broad consensus for a future agreement. The document that serves as a basis for the drafting of a final agreement is a useful first step, but it offers solutions that have shown serious limitations in the past. It presents the crisis as a centre-periphery conflict without acknowledging the divides within northern communities. It does not provide for political and security institutions that would ensure equitable access to resources and responsibilities for all communities.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Our
attention has been drawn to a press statement issued by the Muslims’ Right
Concern (MURIC) in which its Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola made a number of
allegations against the President Goodluck Jonathan, including the mischievous
and false claim that there is a Jewish symbol in the new commemorative N100
note which will be officially issued on December 19.

(pix:nigeriatell)

President Jonathan is certainly not anti-Muslim as
Prof Akintola alleges. As we have often said, the President knows very well
that he was elected to office by a representative majority of all Nigerians and
he continues to deal with all Nigerians fairly and equitably irrespective of
their personal or group religious beliefs.

The allegation by MURIC that President Jonathan is
using the highest office in the country to promote Zionism and the state of Israel
is completely spurious and unfounded.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Nigeria’s presidential, parliamentary and state gubernatorial and assembly elections, scheduled for February 2015, will be more contentious than usual. Tensions within and between the two major political parties, competing claims to the presidency between northern and Niger Delta politicians and along religious lines, the grim radical Islamist Boko Haram insurgency and increasing communal violence in several northern states, along with inadequate preparations by the electoral commission and apparent bias by security agencies, suggest the country is heading toward a very volatile and vicious electoral contest. If this violent trend continues, and particularly if the vote is close, marred or followed by widespread violence, it would deepen Nigeria’s already grave security and governance crises. The government, its agencies and all other national figures must work urgently to ensure that the vote is not conducted in an explosive situation as this could further destabilise the country.

President Jonathan with Vice-President Sambo and PDP Chairman, Muazu

Nigerian elections are traditionally fiercely contested, but in 2015, risks of violence are particularly high. This will be the first nationwide contest essentially between two parties – the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) – since the return to civilian rule in 1999. While a genuine contest is a welcome sign of progress for Nigeria’s democracy (thanks to the emergence last year of the APC, a merger of the four largest opposition parties), increasingly acrimonious relations between the two parties could engender even fiercer clashes among their supporters once campaigning formally starts in December.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Wednesday November 19, 2014 marked the 151st anniversary of the delivery of the Gettysburg
Address by Abraham Lincoln, the President of the US at the time of the American
Civil War in the 19th Century. Lincoln
delivered the speech to commemorate the gruesome Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania and to
dedicate a national cemetery for slain soldiers.

*Abraham Lincoln: 16th President of

the United States(pix:planetfigure)

It was a brief oration that lasted only a few minutes. The Lincoln presentation 272
words – appeared to pale next to that of a well known national orator Professor
Edward Everett whose speech, running into nearly two hours, came ahead of the
president’s.

The crowd gave Lincoln
what an observer described as a “perfunctory applause”. It was a euphemism for
unstated rejection of the speech! But the professional Everett instantly noticed the landing of a
new benchmark for oratorical discipline and ingenuity. “My speech will soon be
forgotten,” he told Lincoln. “Yours will never be. How gladly
would I exchange my hundred pages for your twenty lines”.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Statistics detailing the extent
of perpetration of child sexual abuse is hugely alarming. Projections show that
the number will increase if something is not urgently done. Therefore, the
urgency of the situation demands that I do not waste time on preambles. So I
will just get on with it.

(pix: redwoodsgroup)

Cases of child sexual abuse are
not receiving adequate attention. In fact, while the cases skyrocket, less and
less people clearly and completely understand what it means to sexually abuse a
child. So this work is an urgent attempt to educate(and perhaps re-educate some
others).Urgent because it is very important that we start this discussion now
in order to teach as many people as possible while our children can still be
saved.

Child sexual abuse simply refers
to the engagement in sexual acts with a person under eighteen. Note that the
word "consent" is absent in my definition. The absence was not
fortuitous. This is because, a person under eighteen cannot really give
consent. So even if the person accepted your sexual overtures, it is still
deemed sexual abuse as persons under eighteen cannot legally give consent (in some states in the US, it
is 16). I believe that a lot of people do not know this. Thus if we try to
explore cases of child sexual abuse using this particular criterion, we will
find out that so many people would be found guilty of having sexually abused a
child one way or the other. That is why it is important that this piece of
information is shared.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

By Abiodun Ladepo

"Yes I have killed the woman that messed up my life;
the woman that has destroyed me. I am at Shalom West. My name is David and I am
all yours.”

Those were David Ochola’s words during his 911 (U.S. Emergency Number) call to
authorities after shooting dead his 28 years old wife, Priscilla Ochola, in Hennepin, Minnesota.
The 50-years old husband was tired of being “disrespected” by his wife, a
Registered Nurse (RN) whom he had brought from Nigeria and sponsored through
nursing school only to have her make much more than him in salary - a situation
which led to Mrs. Ochola “coming and going as she chose without regard for her
husband.” The couple had two children – four years old boy and a three
years old girl.

*Some Nigerian Nurses In The US

(pix:nigeriannursesassociationofusa)

In Texas, Babajide Okeowo
had been separated from his wife, Funke Okeowo, with whom he resided at their Dallas home. Upon
the divorce, the husband lost the house to his wife, along with most of the
contents therein, as is usually the tradition in U.S. divorces where the couple
still has underage children. Mr. Okeowo, 48, divorced his wife because
not long after she became a RN and made more money than him, she “took control”
of the family finances and “controlled” her husband’s expenditure and movement.
The husband could no longer make any meaningful contribution to his
family back in Nigeria
unless the wife “approved” it. He could not go out without her permission.
Frustrated that his formerly malleable wife had suddenly become such a “terror”
to him to the point of asking for in court and getting virtually everything for
which he had worked since coming to the US thirty years prior, the husband got
in his vehicle and drove a few hundred miles to Dallas to settle the scores. He
found her in her SUV, adorned in full Nigerian attire on her way to the
birthday bash organized in her honor. She had turned 46 on that day.
Mr. Okeowo fired several rounds into his wife’s torso while she sat at
the steering wheel, mercilessly killing her in broad daylight.

By Dipo AbimbolaIn a
rare show of political vendetta, Governor Babatunde Fashola of LagosState
was said to have spit venom on President Goodluck Jonathan recently. In a
statement which was published in virtually all the existing newspapers in
Nigeria on Tuesday November 4, 2014, Fashola was said to have derided a public
advocacy organization,the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) on
account of its robust defense of President Goodluck Jonathan's achievements and
consequent endorsement of the President to contest for a second term in 2015.
According to the report, Fashola who delivered an address as a Keynote speaker
at the opening ceremony of Women in Business (Wimbiz) Conference held at the
Eko Hotels on Victoria Island in Lagos, lampooned TAN for orchestrating the
return of the Jonathan Administration through false claims, saying that
Jonathan had nothing on ground to justify his more than three years in the
saddle.

A few days ago, precisely on Friday
the 14th of November,2014 a group of friends, associates, colleagues and
admirers cutting across all ages, ethnic, social, religious, political and
geographical divides presented to me the Expression of Interest and Nomination
forms for me to participate in the presidential primaries of the All
Progressive Congress (APC) for the 2015 Presidential Election.

On that auspicious occasion, being
profoundly humbled, I requested for a little more time to conclude my last
round of the series of nationwide consultations which indeed I was just about
to conclude.

Let me state that the 14th November
event was neither an accidental nor sudden happenstance, rather it was another
high point of similar goodwill surprises I had experienced in the last two
years when I started receiving in audience, colleagues, individuals, groups and
delegations of prominent Nigerians on this subject matter

I wish to seize this occasion to
commend, most highly, these patriotic and selfless colleagues, admirers,
individuals and groups for their sacrifice, diligence and single-mindedness in
the pursuit of what they honestly believe is in the best interest of our
fatherland. I am fully aware of the physical, financial and intellectual
resources all of you have expended in this regard besides the sheer volume of
valuable time and the travel risk of crisscrossing to compare notes and confirm
projections. Indeed I can not thank you enough.

Nineteen years ago on November10,1995,
more than two years after he made this grim prediction, Ken Saro-Wiwa, renowned
writer, TV producer, newspaper columnist and irrepressible minority and
environment rights campaigner did indeed die. But not a natural death. He was
executed along with eight others by a Nigerian state in the grip of military
dictator Sani Abacha who felt he had run out of patience with the man that
pummeled Nigeria
for her tragic ecological record in the Niger Delta notably, Ogoni land.

Ken battled the reckless degradation of
Ogoni as no one else did. For years before he was arrested and subjected to a kangaroo
trial that ended with his execution, Saro-Wiwa stood on the tripod of
intellectual discourse, writing and peaceful protests to lash out at the
conspiracy of government and the oil companies that despoiled his people. He
argued that this infernal bond between an “irresponsible” government and
“indifferent” oil companies resulting in death-dealing blows on his kinsmen was
unacceptable. Big money came from the frenetic oil exploration (exploitation).
But Ogoni had nothing to show for being the bird that produced the golden eggs.
Instead Ogoni had pain. Saro-Wiwa lamented that these arose from the fact that
in a so-called federal set up the rights of the minority were appropriated by
the state and added to the rights of the majority ethnic groups.

Friday, November 14, 2014

It is a sickening reality in Nigeria
that defection, the act of leaving one political party for another, also called
carpet-crossing, or what the eminent poet and humorist, Uzor Maxim-Uzoatu called
“Jumpology” (the political act of
jumping from party to party), has been elevated to the height of a national
ideology.

*Nuhu Ribadu, Murtala Nyako and Atiku Abubakar

(pix:pointblanknews)

This glamourisation of political
prostitution by Nigerian politicians signals the death of commonsense. Before
the December 2013 defection of 37 members of the House of Representatives
elected on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the
opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in an open show and fanfare, four
PDP governors had led the way in a much more rehearsed, media pampered
braggadocio in November 2013. Many Nigerians believed that despite the larger
implications of the defection with regards to the 2015 political permutations,
nothing had really changed. Nigerians who are no longer shocked or surprised at
the sheer ingenuity of the defection gale which has seen some politicians
changing parties more than they change their agbada, have unanimously called for a stop to this wayward
political culture.

Text of President Goodluck Jonathan's Speech Declaring his Intention to Run for the 2015
Presidential Elections under the Platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

Eagle Square, Abuja

Tuesday 11th November,
2014

Dear
Compatriots:

Four years ago, precisely September 18, 2010, I
stood in this Eagle Square,
to offer myself for election as the President of our beloved country on the
platform of our great party; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Seven months after that declaration, you
elected me to lead this country with overwhelming support from all parts of our
Nation. I remain grateful for the trust you reposed in me to lead our Nation
through uncommon challenges in our march of progress as a united and democratic
country.

Over the years, the Almighty God has made it
possible for me to develop a bond with you and I am grateful for your support
and understanding in the difficult periods we have journeyed through.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, our
stewardship has not been without challenges. We have had to deal with the wave
of insurgency that has swept through some parts of our dear country. Only
yesterday, GovernmentScienceSecondary School
in YobeState was bombed by insurgents, killing
our promising young children who were seeking education to build the country
and support their parents. Many Nigerians have lost their lives and property to
these mindless killings. Let me crave the indulgence of all present here to
stand up to observe a minutes silence in honour of these young lads who lost
their lives. Clearly, this has cast a dark cloud on our Nation but we will
surely win the war against terror. A number of young men and women have been
kidnapped by these criminal elements including our daughters from Chibok. We will
free our daughters and defeat terror.

We are equipping the armed forces and
deploying special forces to engage the terrorist and end this senseless war. We
must protect our country. We must save our people. I will do everything humanly
possible to end this criminal violence in our Nation.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

By Dan AmorMuch of the significant critical issues in the Cross River State 2015 governorship contest would most likely be centred on the pedigrees of the contestants. This is much so as it is glaring that a precedent has already been set in the quality of materials the State has indubitably thrown up as governors since the beginning of the current political dispensation in 1999.

*Ochiglegor Idagbo (Legor)Two personalities who have governed the agrarian state since then, Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke, represent a bold testimony to the emerging trend of enthroning young and brilliant people at the apogee of political leadership across the world. Talking about young , good-looking, brilliant and adequately educated people in leadership positions in government? There is no doubt that brains and looks appear to be the unassailable clinchers these days as far as elections are concerned. In fact, the advanced democracies of the world discovered this mystery at the dusk of the twentieth century. In the United States of America, for instance, brains and looks did earn the Democratic Party a rare two-term spell under the youthful personage of the ever-voluble, hand-pumping and telegenic Oxford-trained lawyer, Bill Clinton. Even in Great Britain, the electorate, in May 1997, demonstrated a certain unabashed bias for yapper, dapper looks with all the histrionic gestures and dramatic turns of phrases, when they elected Tony Blair of the New Labour, another Oxford-trained lawyer , then 43, as Prime Minister. He was the youngest in 187 years.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

I have always had an unexplained dislike
for the colour red. Perhaps, it is because somewhere in my subconscious I have
associated it with danger or blood. However, in the morning of Thursday, February
23, 2006, I put on an oxblood shirt and a red-brown-black blend tie over black
trousers to go to work which I just resumed two days before.

Having only completed my National Youth
Service in September of the previous year, I thought I was rather fortunate to
have landed that job, considering I did not have to stay at home for long. So
it was with great expectations that I commenced training on the job. I
remembered praying that morning as I always do before setting out, for God’s
protection.

After a rather hitch free commuting via
public transport from Ajah to Airport road where the headquarters of the
company is located, I had an exciting day at work and before the close of
business that day, I was given an invitation to attend the company’s annual
retreat which was holding at Nike Lake resort in Enugu that year. Things were
looking great! I was excited about the retreat of the following week as I had
never been to the eastern part of Nigeria before that time.

Here was I, fresh from school with a law
degree, NYSC behind me, and a promising job ahead of me. Life was good! Those
were my thoughts as I made my way back home. At Oshodi, I boarded a non-stop
bus to Ajah. Since I was the first to
get into the vehicle, I took the front seat as it usually has more room. Soon
after, a male passenger came to join me in front and I made room for him to
take the inner seat while I retained my window seat. I would never know now,
how that decision played out.

As the now filled bus made its way
towards the third mainland bridge, the ride was smooth, things looked normal.
When the driver started to ascend the bridge, at the intersection where the
road forks towards Ibadan expressway to the left
and LagosIsland to the right, he should move
towards the right and continue on the bridge. I just started to think that the
vehicle was too close to the kerb and… (I didn’t quite finish the thought) when
everything happened in surreal slow motion in my mind. The driver violently hit the kerb with the
left wheel, which made the bus travelling at about 100 km/per hour careened out
of balance, fell on my side and continued sliding on the concrete highway till
it spent its velocity and came to an abrupt halt right in the middle of the
road. Fortunately, there was no other vehicle coming behind to run us over.

The noise of the crash was deafening. The
windshield had shattered to a thousand places sending pieces of glass fiber
everywhere. Metal had squeezed, seats were pushed into each other and there was
silence for a fraction of a second before the cries, wailings, and screams
emanated from all around as if people were zoned back into the present to
confront the horrors.

Today,
Monday November 10, 2014, indubitably marks the nineteenth anniversary of the
tragic and shocking death of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa and eight of his Ogoni
kinsmen, in the evil hands of professional hangmen who sneaked into Port Harcourt from Sokoto
in the cover of darkness. By his death, the Sani Abacha-led military junta had
demonstrated, in shocking finality, to the larger world, that it was guided by
the most base, most callous of instincts.

We remember him today because, for this writer,
as for most disinterested Nigerians, Ken Saro-Wiwa lives alternatively as an
inspirational spirit, and a haunting one at that. Now, as always, Nigerians who
care still hear Ken's steps on the polluted land of his ancestors. They still
see the monstrous flares from poisonous gas stacks, and still remember his
symbolic pipe. Now, as always, passionate Nigerians will remember and hear the
gleeful blast of the Ogoni song, the song Ken sang at his peril. Yet, only the
initiated can see the Ogoni national flag flutter cautiously in the saddened
clouds of a proud land. But all can hear his name in the fluttering of the
Eagle's wing.

Monday, November 10, 2014

SundayJune
8, 2014 indubitably marked the sixteenth anniversary of the death of General
Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s most
treacherous tyrant and who ranked with Agathocles and Dionysus I of Sicily, as the greatest
dictators, not only of antiquity but of all time.

*Abacha

It is true that the degree of
cruelty and loathsome human vulgarity that the Abacha era epitomized is already
fading into the background because of the mundane and short character of the
human memory. But his timely exit ought to have been marked by Nigerians just
as the United Nations marks the end of the Second World War not only for
posterity but also as a thanksgiving to God for extricating us from such epoch
of human misery.